UKEAT/0042/20/AT (V), Judge James Tayler
This case raises an interesting question as to the extent of vicarious liability for acts of discrimination. While the decision is focused on the definition of employment under the Equality Act 2010, it shines light on the limitations on vicarious liability for harassment/ discrimination. Continue reading
[2020] EWHC 3416 (Admin), Knowles CBE J
This was a claim brought by asylum seekers who, their claims having been rejected by the defendant, were not permitted to work or to access public funds while they awaited the defendant’s consideration of their further representations. The defendant had accepted that she was under a duty to provide accommodation or arrange for the provision of accommodation to the claimants under s4(2) Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 (“the 1999 Act”). Continue reading
[2020] EWHC 3376 (Admin), Clive Sheldon QC sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge
This case concerned a renewed application for permission in a PSED challenge to the Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education and Health Education (England) Regulations 2019 and associated guidance, Continue reading
[2020] EWCA Civ 1526, Bean, Asplin and Lewis LJJ
The Court of Appeal refused an appeal against a decision that an employment tribunal did not have jurisdiction to determine a claim brought against the respondent university in connection with the appellant’s experiences while studying for a Master of Laws in Professional Legal Practice. Continue reading
It was widely reported on 9 September that the Garrick Club, whose membership has included such luminaries as Charles Dickens, A. A. Milne Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud, is facing a legal challenge to its exclusion of women from membership. Continue reading
[2020] EWCA Civ 1058, Sir Terence Etherton MR, Dame Victoria Sharp P and Singh LJ
The Court of Appeal allowed the Claimant’s appeal against the decision of the Divisional Court that the Defendant had not breached the PSED in its trial of live automated facial recognition technology Continue reading
[2020] EWCA Civ 1046, Sir Geoffrey Vos C, Singh and Simler LJJ
The claimant unsuccessfully appealed against the rejection by Lewis J of its challenge to the decision to remove the exemption in the congestion charging regime which had previously applied to private hire vehicles (PHVs). The exemption remained applicable to black cabs and to the 1% of PHVs which were wheelchair accessible. The claimant argued that the removal of the exemption amounted to indirect discrimination against BAME and women PHV drivers, 94% of PHV drivers being from BAME backgrounds whereas 88% of black cab drivers were white. Continue reading
[2020] EWHC 1679 (Admin), Julian B Knowles J
The case was brought by a charitable adoption and fostering agency which sought judicial review of a report by Ofsted which found that its policy of accepting only heterosexual evangelical Christians as the potential carers of fostered children breached the Equality Act 2010 and the Human Rights Act 1998, and required that Cornerstone alter the policy. Continue reading
Part 2 of the PHE’s Understanding the impact of COVID-19 on BAME groups was finally published on 16 June 2020, a fortnight after Part 1. It makes for chilling reading. Continue reading
[2020] EWCA Civ 733, Underhill (VP) and McCombe LJJ, Morgan J, 11 June 2020
The requirement for a real or hypothetical comparator in direct discrimination cases has given rise to difficulties in judicial analysis, particularly in the context of pregnancy (see the saga which started with the decision of the EAT in Turley v Alders Dept Store [1980] ICR 66, continued through that of the EAT in Hayes v Malleable Working Men’s Club [1985] ICR 703 and culminated in the decision of the House of Lords in Webb v EMO (No 2) [1995] ICR 1021). Continue reading
